Head Of The Love Club: Gretel Hänlyn Interviewed

“There was a very exuberant, extravagant young man dressed all in sparkly pink called Zack, who I promised I’d get a drink for because he was singing all of the lyrics, but I couldn’t find him afterwards. Zack if you’re out there!” laughs 20 year-old musician Gretel Hänlyn via Zoom. Real name Maddy Haenlein, Gretel is known for her powerful vocals and unique blend of rock, indie and grunge. The young singer-songwriter has built a dedicated fanbase since the release of her first single ‘Slugeye’ in September 2021. Despite a whimsical and offbeat musical persona, Gretel herself comes off grounded and self-aware, speaking with refreshing candour and warmth as we sit down to discuss writer’s block, the pros of being self-critical and creating your own fantasy worlds.

“I didn’t always sing like this,” Gretel explains as we discuss her commanding voice, “I had a developmental issue where I didn’t really have enough muscle especially in my diaphragm so I couldn’t sing very well, and it took a lot of energy to sing. So one of the things that made it a lot easier to sing was lowering my larynx […] I do consider that to be my singing voice, but with this next EP I’ve kind of allowed myself to use my voice as more of an instrument.”

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The ‘next EP’ in question, ‘Head Of The Love Club’ is out shortly, but its creation wasn’t the easiest process for the young singer: “Before I wrote this new EP, I had really bad writer’s block for a while and everything that I wrote I absolutely hated, but I didn’t throw away the demos. [The EP] ended up being the songs I wrote in my writer’s block.” Gretel remarks how the EP cathartically tackles “themes of ongoing rejection, how it feels to have an obsession that you’ve mistaken for love.” When writing the EP, Gretel found she kept returning to the same subject matter: “I found that I kept on talking about this one character, who is based on a real person, who I refer to as the ‘Head Of The Love Club’. This was someone in my life and I was tackling a very unique relationship with him where I didn’t know where I stood. There was a lot of confusion and my age definitely played a big part in my own naivety in that situation.”

“I found using this metaphor of the ‘head of the love club’ – which kind of insinuates potential prostitution or darkness or things that aren’t allowed, and referring to myself as kind of a young girl, in an underage kind of way – helped me play into a fantasy world which was a much easier pill to swallow when I was reflecting on my reality.”

Whilst this EP tackles love in all of its dark, twisted forms, Gretel discusses how she actively used to resist writing any songs on the subject. “I wouldn’t let myself write a song about love before. I think there was a bit of like ‘pick me’ conditioning, like it would be way cooler if I never sang about love,” Gretel rolls her eyes at her past self.

Reflecting back on her first EP ‘Slugeye’, released in 2022, Gretel notes: “It’s quite easy to put down your first work. I used to want to put it down and think, ‘I can do better, I can be better’. That came from an 18-year-old girl who was discovering her sound and it’s really nice to document that transition into me finding my sound a lot more in the new EP compared to the last EP. It’s like watching a young lady and a young musician find her own narrative and her own sound.”

Entering the music industry at such a young age wasn’t without its struggles, however. “I remember when I first started entering the music scene and I think it was my Mum who said that I might get hate for being too similar to Ellie Rowsell. I mean she’s just another great woman in rock, why are we drawing these comparisons when there are so many dudes who sound exactly the same yet they have earned their own place?” Often placed alongside the likes of PJ Harvey and Florence Welch, Hanlyn seems proud of the comparisons. “I like getting compared to cool ladies!”

We also find common ground in admitting we’re both self-critical. “I wonder if it’s quite a common feminine trait. I don’t think it’s a bad thing necessarily, I think generally women just have a better grip of their own reality, maybe we don’t pat ourselves on the back as much as we could.” She shrugs with cool ease. “I know when to be self-critical and I know when to be proud, self-criticising is such a good thing if it comes from a healthy place, that’s the thing that’s making you grow.”

“I like that things are going a little slower for me,” Gretel summarises. “Nothing’s gone viral. I want to focus on building a long-term fanbase that has been with me for a long time.”

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Words: Grace Dodd